Accumulating through law: An outline of the financialisation of 'Capital’s justice'

• Max Weber Programme for Postdoctoral Studies

The Max Weber Programme invites you to the second edition of the multidisciplinary workshop seminar series.

On 7 January 2026, a few days after the United States operation that led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, the Financial Times reported on another operation - this one not military but financial. Financial companies and investment funds, such as Carronade Capital Management and Canaima Capital, were intensifying their efforts to identify and acquire claims arising from arbitral decisions previously made against Venezuela, the state most frequently sued before arbitral courts. According to these investors, the political situation inaugurated by Maduro’s removal was likely to increase the value of such claims. The interest shown by financial actors in investment arbitration is not new. It emerged in the aftermath of the 2008 banking crisis. Through the funding of arbitral proceedings on the one hand, and through the secondary market on which claims arising from arbitral decisions are traded on the other, arbitral justice has gradually undergone a process of 'financialisation'. This presentation seeks to outline the legal mechanisms through which third-party funding of arbitral proceedings has been made possible, as well as the issues it raises - both for the parties, in terms of control over their arbitration, and for states, in matters of sovereignty.